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Aston Martin Racing has paired with Toronto-based Multimatic Motorsports to enter a pair of Vantage GT4s in the Grand-Am series.

Aston Martin will begin its Grand-Am campaign on Jan. 27 during the first round of the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Daytona International Speedway.

Making a return to domestic competition in North America, Aston Martin Racing has paired with Toronto-based Multimatic Motorsports to enter a pair of Vantage GT4s in the Grand-Am series.

Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster will drive the lead car, while movie and TV star Patrick Dempsey--a talented racer in his own right--will drive the second car. Chris Porritt, Aston Martin's chief engineer and a vastly experienced Vantage GT4 driver, will compete alongside Dempsey.

The first round of the 2012 season will run in support of the 50th-anniversary Rolex 24 at Daytona. The race will run 2.5 hours, with a mandatory driver change. The team will compete in the Grand Sport category, which is contested by six- and eight-cylinder production-derived sports cars.

The opening round of the championship follows a successful three-day test session earlier this month.

Multimatic has experience in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, having won the championship three times (2002, 2005 and 2008) since the series' 2000 inauguration. The Vantage GT4, meanwhile, has numerous class victories worldwide to its credit, and it won the 2010 European GT4 Cup and posted back-to-back championship victories in the Nürburgring-based VLN series in 2010 and 2011.

The Vantage GT4 has established itself as Europe's most successful GT4 car, with an unsurpassed record for reliability. The Vantage GT4s for the Continental series have been modified in key areas from standard GT4 specification by Aston Martin Racing to comply with Grand-Am regulations.

“The first round of the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Daytona will see Aston Martin realize a long-held desire to have the Vantage GT4 competing regularly in North America,” said David King, Aston Martin's head of motorsport. “Aston Martin Racing has built and sold nearly 100 Vantage GT4s since we raced the first one at the Nürburgring 24-hour race in 2006, and it's great to be present at last in such an important market with such a strong and experienced partner as Multimatic.”